Have you ever felt pain in your shoulder after overhead activities? This pain restricts your daily activities. There are multiple causes of shoulder pain and discomfort. Physical therapy helps to relieve shoulder pain with simple exercises and techniques.
Exercise helps to move the shoulder joint within a pain-free range because your shoulder enables your arm to move at 360 degrees. So strengthening and stretching exercises relieve shoulder pain. But before that, consult your doctor.
You can also do massage with the help of a massage ball set, icing, and an upper body workout to eliminate shoulder pain. Stretching plays a significant role in easing shoulder pain and tightness. Do you want to know how?
Is stretching good for shoulder pain?
Whether you feel heaviness or pain in your shoulder, it's time to stretch it out. After a grueling workout or using your laptop for a long time while on a chair, your muscles become tense and painful. If this tightness goes unchecked, it causes neck and shoulder pain.
In severe cases, this shoulder pain leads to headaches. If you combine stretching with strengthening exercises or do stretching alone, you get the same benefits. It helps to ease pain and reduce soreness and swelling.
Before stretching, you can also massage with the help of a massage ball set; this helps to break adhesions and knots. After a massage for a few minutes, stretching the shoulder muscles provides enough relief and improves the quality of life.
What stretches relieve shoulder pain?
Do you know the benefit of regular stretching on your shoulder? Stretching helps to prevent tightness in your arm and neck. But which one is best depends upon the underlying cause.
In some cases, maintaining a stretch in specific positions, yoga helps to ease symptoms. Let's see what stretches relieve shoulder pain
Shoulder Rolls:
Shoulder rolls help to ease tension and heaviness in your shoulders.
Stand width apart with arms hanging at the side.
Take a deep breath, and lift your shoulders towards the ears.
Squeeze the shoulder blade by moving the shoulder backward.
Now exhale and, at the same time, drop your shoulders down.
Move your elbows forward, and you will feel a stretch on the back of your shoulder.
Repeat it ten times.
Neck Stretches:
Stretching the neck helps to release tension at the top of the shoulder. For this:
Stand width apart with arms hanging at the side.
Bend the head to one side and try to touch the ear with the same shoulder.
Hold it for a few seconds.
You feel a stretch in your neck and shoulder on the opposite side.
Give the same stretch on the opposite side.
Repeat it three times on each side.
Arm Swings:
Cross-body arm swings help to increase the movement of the shoulder joint.
Stand with feet width-apart, and inhale.
Move the arms out to the side while squeezing the shoulder blades.
Now exhale and bring your arm back in.
While keeping both arms straight, cross one arm on the other.
Again exhale and move the arms out to the other side. Repeat it with the opposite arm on one another.
Repeat it ten times.
Pendulum Stretching:
When you get relief from pain, pendulum exercises help to achieve mobility in the shoulder joint.
Stand with feet width apart, and look at the ground while leaning forward.
Place one hand on a support.
With the other arm hanging freely.
Move your arm in small circles in the direction of gravity.
Do this for a minute and change your hand.
What is the best exercise for shoulder pain?
Stretching is best for shoulder pain. There are many causes of shoulder pain. Whether it results from a workout or trauma, you can do stretching. It is used as a warm-up and cool-down phase during upper-body workouts.
There are two types of stretching exercises: static and dynamic stretching.
Dynamic Stretching:
Dynamic stretching involves a controlled movement in a specific position, preparing the muscles for vigorous activity. You can perform these stretches before an upper body workout as it increases the temperature and decreases the stiffness of muscles and soft tissues. It includes:
Lateral Raise
Shoulder press
Standing chest press
Serratus Punch
Static Stretching:
Status stretching involves moving a muscle to the maximum range of motion. You can perform these stretching after an upper body workout as it reduces the chance of injury and soreness. If you want to improve flexibility, then static stretching helps you. It includes
Cross-body shoulder stretch
Cross-body arm stretch
Depending upon the need of your body, you can perform static or dynamic stretching. One of the best things is that static stretching is also suitable for maintaining overall health and fitness.
What shoulder exercises can you do daily?
Shoulder exercises are a part of an upper-body workout or a whole-body workout regime. You can perform strengthening, stretching, yoga, and even massage daily to build muscle strength and improve mobility and flexibility.
Strengthening exercises:
Strengthening exercises focus on developing more muscular, bigger, and broader shoulders. It also helps to prevent chances of injury.
Pull-ups
Overhead Press
Lateral Raise
Front and lateral raises
Stretching exercises:
Stretching exercises help to improve mobility and flexibility. It also improves the range of motion of a joint. Stretching exercises include:
Shoulder rolls
Cross-body shoulder stretch
Cross-body arm stretch
Pendulum stretch
Yoga:
Yoga helps to ease shoulder pain because it releases tension in the tight muscles. Yoga poses that help in relieving shoulder pain are:
Ragdoll Stretch
Child Pose Stretch
Eagle Arm Stretch
Thoracic Rotation
Massage:
Massage helps to break adhesions and tension knots that cause shoulder pain. You can use different physiotherapy tools like massage ball sets for massage.
Final Verdict:
Shoulder pain is a common complaint in gym rats and old-age people. You can perform physical therapy along with medication to treat this pain. Exercises, especially stretching, play a significant role in relieving shoulder pain.
Comments